Credit score has dropped 100 points.. HELP

[Anonymous]

Similar(ish) to my DH's biga$$ TV purchase. Hope the info is helpful. I don't remember his exact FICO info, I don't track his like I track mine.

pre TV

820ish FICOs

AoYA was 3yrs

AAoA was 15ish yrs

Bought TV at BestBuy Dec 2017

65% uti on new BB card

770ish FICOs

AoYA 0mos

AAoA 6ish yrs

Today

11% uti 

798 FICO (EX)

AoYA 9 or 10 mos

AAoA 6+yrs

He didn't think about his score taking a dive with new credit. He about had a heart attack when I asked why he got the new card, told him his score would take a big hit, told him his new score. He chose to just make payments, no need for immediate score boost by immediate payoff.

edit... mods, if "biga$$ TV" isn't ok, remove it

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes  I can pay it in full right now. I was just going to pay it off , will this help our scores? 

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@Pikaboo-icu wrote:

Awe sorry... 

That account is over 50% uti, you got a HP inquiry and it reset your youngest account age.

Also it changed the AAoA, severity depending on what that average age was, there's a drop there too. 

Do you have the funds to pay the new account down to under 10% uti? Or at least under 30% ?

That might help some.

The good news is; At least it doesn't seem like a CFA financing- those are awful and last for a LONG time. 

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[Anonymous]

He is about to get a nice surprise when AoYA hit 12 months, I got a 24 point boost on Experian.

[Anonymous]

Really? Cool, that will make him very happy.

I think I'll "predict" a 20+ point increase. ;D  He is amazed that I have gone from not wanting to mess with credit, to knowing a lot (thanks to myFICO members). I should bet a meal. He'll say "no way, 20 pts" & he'll lose the bet.

Thanks @oldman87

[Anonymous]

Bet 15 points just to be safe LOL

[Anonymous]

Wull do. Thanks!

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@Anonymous wrote:
Bet 15 points just to be safe LOL

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[Anonymous]

Another thought is to call Sychrony overseas right now and get a CLI. Ask for 50K and let them counter with 25K or 30K. Why use your hard-earned money to lower the Util % when you can use theirs?

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So my wife and I just bought a Sleep Mattress bed and we applied for the financing option of no interest for 24 months. They signed us up for a Sychroney Credit Card and the limit was $14000. The bed was $7750.00. Now Both our credit scores have tanked in a week. I am down from mid 800's all three to 715 . 723. 725. Should I pay this thing off right now? How do I get our points back? We are stressed out over this and would have paid for it had we known all of this? Thanks 

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You probable took a hit for age of youngest account age dropping from over 12 months to zero months. That ding may be 20 to 25 points give or take. You likely also took a 5 point hit for a new inquiry. The 20 point hit will remain regardless of what you do now. It will hurt your score for 12 months but, may impact may lessen at 6 months. The inquiry will continue to impact your score for 12 months on whatever CRA shows the HP. So, there are 25 to 30 points you won't get back anytime soon.

A majority of the remaining point loss relates to the high utilization on your new card (55%) and potentially an increase in aggregate if your AG UT% was below 9% and is now above 9%. These spikes in utilization could account for 40 to 50 points. Those points can be regained by paying off the balance or paying it down below 9%.

Given your drop of over 100 points it appears this new account is classified as a consumer finance account (CFA). That's a bad thing from a Fico score perspective and just having a CFA on your file can cost you a lot of points - perhaps 30 or 40 points. The worst part about a CFA is it has been reported to drag down score as long as it is part of your file.

[Gmood1]

That's a huge drop for one account added!
Sounds like your credit file is paper thin.
As soon as you're below 30% utilization on that card. Some of those points will return fairly quickly. I'd request a CLI on the card and relax as suggested by one of the posters.

Also take advantage of the 0% as the Oldman says. No need in spending the money now, if you don't have to.

The next time around, your file will be stronger and able to absorb those hits better without such a large dip. The thicker the file, the less adverse it becomes.

Scores are one thing, I'll take the thicker file over the long run. You don't want to be afraid to use your good credit to your advantage.
After all, what is it for? If you're afraid to use it.😉

[Anonymous]

GM, I don't think the OP's file can be paper thin with mid 800's scores like he states. 

OP, can you provide a bit more information about your file... such as your AoYA, AAoA, AoOA and number of accounts (closed and open) on your CR?

In the OP's sig, he shows around $70k in overall credit limits.  Adding this new $14k card brings him to around $84k in overall limits and an $8k balance would constitute an aggregate utilization increase of under 10%.  That's assuming all of his revolving limits are listed in his sig; if he has more, that percentage would decrease of course.

Does anyone know if Synchrony does CFAs?  From my experience any time you get a CC through them due to requesting "financing" at the place you're making the purchase, it's coded as a CC.  The best example I can think of with this is someone at the dentist can't afford the work, so the dentist pushes their financing.  It ends up being a Care Credit account backed by Synchrony.  They send you a card and it's coded as a revolver.  I've had 2 of these accounts on my CR and neither were a CFA.  I'm not sure if that's true of all Synchrony accounts, so if anyone knows that would be good information.

Did the OP disclose that his AoYA was > 12 months?  If so, I missed it.  I know several people above suggested that AoYA drop to 0 months could result in a 20-25 point drop or so.  This may very well be true, but if the OP opened another account within the last year I don't believe that this factor would really be worthy of discussion at this point.

All things considered here, a 100 point FICO drop from the addition of this account sounds off to me.  I sort of agree with the person above that suggested that perhaps another file change happened at about the same time.  Files with FICO scores in the mid 800s are usually quite capable of absorbing a new account without an overly crazy FICO score drop.

[Thomas_Thumb]

BBS, I agree a drop of over 100 points is highly unusual given what the OP described. The OP does not mention his AoYA. However, assuming nothing else is going on, accounting for such a massive drop would require AoYA being above 12 months previously and the account being considered a CFA in addition to crossing some UT% thresholds.

If we consider other potential influencers, the drop would be in-line with a derogatory showing up. My recollection is the OP may have an EX. If true, perhaps he is somehow linked to an account his EX has (like being AU on a credit card) and the account is now reporting a delinquinency.

Best thing is for the OP to get up to date copies of CRA reports and provide details. Lack of data makes analysis more speculative